The Dried Well Syndrome

It's been a while that I've become an active blogger. I posted articles once or twice in a week, paid visits to fellow bloggers, shouted at their SBs and left lengthy comments. It becomes part of my daily life already.

A friend recently told me, however, that she actually preferred my old postings. She said that the contents were somewhat original and could give some after thoughts to the reader.

Well, it certainly hit hard right on my head and made me think whether I have really been in a situation of what I now called the Dried Well Syndrome.

I’ve been disturbed for quite a while with a thought about lives of book writers, song writers, musicians, preachers, entertainers, poets, painters, designers, etc. These are professions that require persons to use acquired skills, experiences, creativities and imagination in their memory banks, or wells, to produce masterpiece.

Learning, observation and research, interaction and engagement, dialectic process and periodic contemplation during one’s life will fill-in the wells with plenty of intangible savings that can be withdrawn later whenever a person does his or her creative works.

Normally things are under control at the beginning of a profession, but life’s progressing. Writers that used to make one or to books in a year, are forced to produce more books because of high market demand.
A preacher, who used to speak once or twice a month, suddenly has a full committed schedule for 6 months, even a year, two-three times in a week.

There are times when the productions of creative works are far higher and faster than the fill-in activities. If the situation persists, the well will be dried up. Nothing can be taken out from the well anymore. If there’s any, the quality of the creative works will be terrible. This is what I call the Dried Well Syndrome.

I do like Leo Kristi, a lot. I believe I still can play with my guitar and sing songs of “Anna Rebana”, “Nyanyian Tanah Merdeka”, or “Nyanyian Malam”, even though I had no longer played the songs for more than 5 or even 10 years.
Unfortunately, he’s dried up since several years ago. No more masterpieces.

What about some of our favorite preachers, singers, bands, film directors, painters, sculptors, comedians, trainers, teachers, etc? Have they been caught by the syndrome already?

The syndrome certainly may attack you and me, sooner or later, unless we can avoid the trap, and say no, enough. There will be times when we need to stop the production for a while, to sharpen the saw, and start filling-in the well, before it’s too late.